May 2023
Congratulations Maria for your outstanding career!
A beautiful day accompanied us on the celebration day for Maria's birthday. Between lunch, pleasant conversations and laughs, Maria had to unwrap quite a few packages to figure out what she should take home!
Here, we also want to remember one of the many achievements in her career, i.e. to be one of the most influential researchers in the world! Congrats from all the group!
https://qui.uniud.it/ateneo/cresce-a-49-il-numero-di-scienziati-dellateneo-fra-i-piu-citati-al-mondo/ (in italian)
June 2022
Field trip in Marano
Beautiful field trip with students in the Marano lagoon! First year bachelor students of Environmental Sciences were involved in discussions on tides, vegetation and hydromorphic soils with the professors V. Casolo, F. Boscutti and M. De Nobili. After the trip, we did not give up on some relaxing time on the boat and when seafood arrived for lunch! Weather was great and we thank the guests Ivo Pecile and Marco Virgilio for their presence and videos.
December 2021
Our student awarded!
Congratulations to Silvia! Her thesis was recently awarded as best bachelor thesis on ecosystems and waters of the Isonzo area. The relevant topic on mercury contamination and uptake in barley attracted the interest of the committee, which rewarded her work.
Well done Silvia! We are proud of your achievement and wish you the best for the future!
October 2021
Outlook from Lucas' paper
Despite late, I am finally speaking about the nice work done with Lucas Peralta, PhD student at Copenhagen University.
He has nicely investigated the barrier to ROL in rice and together, we developed a video (available on YouTube) showing how the ROL barrier can potentially affect the loss of water, becoming an interesting plant trait for drought tolerance. The hypothesis is well supported by preliminary data and Lucas is going to deeper investigate rice performance under drought.
For details, look at our paper in New Phytologist!
October 2021
Heartfelt thanks!
My wonderful experience at the University of Copenhagen has recently finished and I already miss my great team and the nice people from the section!
Thank you Ole for the great time at your lab.
Your lovely post
moved me! and many thanks to Max, Lucas, Tong and Song for the work and fun together.
I love our last photo together! Hope to join you soon again!
September 2021
Interview at Geo
I am happy to share my small contribution to science dissemination on a wide audience! I was excited for this invitation to Geo, a national program on the Italian television (Rai3) dealing with nature and climate. It was a wonderful experience that I hope to repeat soon!
The video is available at (in Italian only): https://www.raiplay.it/video/2021/09/Limportanza-della-vegetazione-delle-zone-umide-Geo
July 2021
Fe plaques at the XRF beamline
Great time with Katarina Vogel-Mikuš and Iztok Arčon at the XRF beamline of the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste (IT). Work is always nicer when in good company and with excellent researchers!
Despite technical issues with the beam, we managed to perform XANES measurements of Fe plaques deposited on roots surfaces of Puccinellia festuciformis, a flood and salt tolerant species, and on artificial roots (silicone tubes).
And the next step is already planned! I and Katarina will try to locate macro and microelements possibly trapped in the plaques using Katarina’s micro-PIXE technique, at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana (SLO). Looking for it!
June 2021
Glad for this nice award!
I am very happy for this nice recognition and that my proposal on reed die-back and climate change was considered of high interest! especially looking at the challenges of these last 2 years of pandemic, it was a really nice surprise to get awarded! Thanks for this national program For Women In Science of L'Oréal-UNESCO, I and many female collegues can every year continue to fund their research.
June 2021
Visit to Klaus' lab at Aarhus University
I enjoyed a lot the visit to Klaus and Silvia at Aarhus University! We spent the morning working with their beatiful hyperspectral camera and recording data on iron plaques.
Our fruitful collaboration will offer alternatives to current expensive techniques (e.g. synchrotron beamlines), for researchers interested in mineral characterisation of plaques (and not only plaques!). Preliminary results are promising!
May 2021
Iron plaques on roots of wild species
Finally, with the reopening of labs after the corona lock-down, some lab experiments on plaque induction on living roots! Puccinellia genus is high tolerant to flooding and turned out to be a perfect model plant for studying the formation of iron plaques.
The photo shows a plant without plaques, with plaques induced at pH 4, pH 6 and pH 8 (from left to right).
Read more at Ole Pedersen's blog: https://flooding.dk/blog/iron-plaque-formation-on-roots-of-wetland-plants
February 2021
Funded project at Elettra synchrotron facility!
My project on mineral composition of iron plaques formed on roots in presence of salt was granted by Elettra in Trieste (IT)!
I, Katarina Vogel-Mikuš and Iztok Arčon will analyse plaques formed on artificial roots in order to predict the stability of these iron minerals and consequences on micronutrient availability for plants.
January 2021
Special Issue on Plant-soil in flooded systems
I am glad to write my first post announcing that calls are open for the a Special Issue on Plant–Soil Interactions in Wetlands and Flooded Environments in Plants journal! I hope to collect exciting papers on this topic and personally meet people sharing my interest on this topic.